Former Radio Disney Employee Says Miley Cyrus Was Banned After She Released ‘Can’t Be Tamed’

It's been about ten years since Miley Cyrus, fresh off her career-making stint as Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel, released her Rock Mafia-produced dance-pop single "Can't Be Tamed." The bold track, along with its raucous music video, marked the arrival of a young woman ready to step away from the perceived "purity" of her Disney sitcom days and into her own as an autonomous artist.

With its theme of breaking free of restraints (in the clip, Miley plays a winged performer who busts out of the cage that traps her), "Can't Be Tamed" saw the then-teen star experimenting with and expressing her attitude, creative perspective and sexuality in a way we hadn't seen before. (Though, would certainly see time and time again in the decade since.)

But, like so many young women who grew up on and with Disney, only to face a nonsensical public outcry at their inevitable growing up, Miley faced controversy for the edgy track and its dark, sexy video. Parents were so outraged, it seems, that even Disney felt pressured to pull as far away from this new version of their money-making starlet as possible.

On Twitter Wednesday (May 6), a former Radio Disney employee claimed that when they worked as a production assistant at the company back in 2010, the day after "Can't Be Tamed" was released, Radio Disney was allegedly informed by its parent company to "cancel" airing or promoting anything related to Miley.

"I'm not kidding when I say that the NEXT DAY after this dropped Disney made us cancel EVERYTHING that was connected to Miley Cyrus," user @joseonyx tweeted. "No radio play. No mentioning her. NOTHING."

Unfortunately, the allegation isn't all that surprising considering the way young women celebrities in the 2000s were treated by the media, especially when it came to any sort of public display of sexual expression or autonomy. (See: Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, etc.) Thankfully though, Miley doesn't seem to have any regrets about her days on Disney—she did pay homage to her blonde pop star character late last year.